Survival part 1

by Donna Louise (5-A-4)

Charlie Newman looked down at his hands with a feeling of elation. They hadn't been so clean in the three years he'd been working in the mines. Oh, how he hated his job in the mine! The dust and dirt and grime filled his lungs, got under his fingernails, and ground into his skin. And just look at the clumsy, heavy clothes he was wearing.

Even as a little boy he had been envious of girls. They could keep clean and wear pretty, light, airy clothes. But people had thought it odd of him that he didn't want to stay dirty like all the other grubby little boys. Sometimes he still wished he could have been a girl.

A bell clanged briefly, reminding him that it was time for him to make the hourly check of the gauges. He still felt a little guilty, even after two weeks, as he thought of his fellow employees out on strike, while he was drawing full pay. Some one had been needed to watch the pumps and keep them going so the lower levels wouldn't be flooded when the men came back to work. The superintendent and two foremen could have handled it, but one of the foremen, Charlie's uncle, wanted to take a vacation trip to the west coast, so he suggested they use Charlie. The super agreed, for old time's sake, and gave Charlie the midnight to 8 A. M. shift.

They had promised him, in addition to his regular pay, a $50 bonus and three weeks off with full pay when the strike was settled. So here he was in the lower levels of the coal mine, where he had lived for the past two weeks. Charlie knew that when the strike was over he'd have to go back to his old job, and he'd hate it more than ever now. Not that he didn't app- reciate the job, even if it was a dirty one, it had been a lifesaver. His mother had died when he was a little more than a baby and when he was twelve years old, his father had been killed in a mine accident. He'd gone to live with his father's brother, a foreman in

45.